Democrats probe whether Flynn pushed nuclear project as Trump aide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers are investigating whether retired U.S. General Michael Flynn secretly promoted a U.S.-Russian project to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the Middle East after becoming President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser.

Representatives Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel made the disclosure in a letter they sent on Tuesday to Flynn’s lawyer and executives of the private firms that developed the project. Flynn’s now-defunct company worked as a consultant on it.

Robert Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, declined to comment.

Separately on Wednesday, NBC News reported that Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr., is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his inquiry into U.S. allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Flynn worked for his father’s consulting firm.

A lawyer for Flynn Jr. declined to comment to NBC.

“The American people deserve to know whether General Flynn was secretly promoting the private interests of these businesses while he was a (Trump) campaign adviser, transition official, or President Trump’s national security adviser,” Cummings and Engel said in the letter made public on Wednesday.

They asked Flynn’s lawyer and executives of the companies involved to provide “all communications” they had with Flynn or other administration officials during Flynn’s association with Trump.

The project proposes to build 40 nuclear reactors across the Middle East that would feed a regional electric grid. The reactors would be “proliferation proof,” meaning they could not be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

A promotional slide of the project said security would be provided by Rosoboron, a Russian state-owned arms exporter that is under U.S. sanctions. The sanctions imposed during the administration of former President Barack Obama soured relations between Moscow and Washington and Trump said in his election campaign that he wanted to improve those ties.

Intelligence reports indicate that some Trump associates may have violated a law called the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with a foreign government that has a dispute with the United States, sources familiar with the reports said.

Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Engel, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, asked that the documents be provided by Oct. 4.

FILE PHOTO - U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn boards Air Force One at West Palm Beach International airport in West Palm Beach, Florida U.S. on February 12, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files

‘SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS’

The retired general is a central figure in Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia to boost Trump’s campaign. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, fired Flynn on Feb. 13, 18 days after a top Justice Department official warned that the former Defense Intelligence Agency director could be blackmailed because Moscow knew he made misleading statements about his contacts with Russian officials.

Cummings and Engel sent their letter as part of an inquiry into the renewal of Flynn’s 2016 Top Secret security clearance.

They said Flynn failed to disclose a June 2015 trip he made to Egypt and Israel to promote the reactor project to investigators reviewing his renewal application and that he also did not list the foreigners with whom he met.

The lawmakers wrote that replies from the executives and Kelner to a June letter confirmed that Flynn made the trip.

“Based on your responses, it appears that General Flynn violated federal law,” they wrote.

“Since these violations carry criminal penalties of up to five years in prison, we are providing your responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” they wrote to Kelner, Alex G. Copson of X-Co Dynamics/ACU Strategic Partners, and retired Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt of X-Co Dynamics/Ironbridge Group/IP3. All are private companies.

“Second, your responses raise significant questions about whether General Flynn continued to communicate with you and others about this project after the presidential election, after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, and after General Flynn assumed the post of national security adviser - without disclosing his foreign travel or contacts,” the lawmakers added.

Donald Gross, counsel for ACU Strategic Partners, said the company has cooperated with the oversight committee in providing information about the project being developed along with Hewitt’s IP3, and “General Flynn’s limited involvement in June 2015.”

Hewitt did not respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.

The proposed reactor project would be funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and built and run by a consortium of U.S., Russian, French, Dutch, Arab, British, Ukrainian and Israeli firms.

Additional reporting by Warren Strobel in Washington and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by John Walcott, Peter Cooney and Grant McCool